Gov. Bobby Jindal Slams Common Core In New Education Proposal

In a 42-page education reform plan, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana argues three conservative principles crucial to education reform. Jindal is viewed as one of the potential contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Entitled America Next, Jindal identifies four key problems with the way education is structured in America today:

The bureaucratic education system

Influential teachers unions

Overregulation

Lack of parental freedom

To solve these problems, the Louisiana governor outlines three principles:

“Without parents, there would be no education system,” Jindal said. “Yet our current education system treats parents as an impediment, at worst, and one ‘stakeholders’ at best.”

“Recognizing that parents have primary responsibility over their children’s lives requires granting them the power to help their children receive the best education possible.”

The Bayou State governor also attacks Common Core in his set of principles, calling for its repeal. “While states can and should raise academic expectations for students, the rollout and unraveling of this national initiative has made it abundantly clear that the U.S. education establishment too often does not respond to parents and local voters,” he said.

Common Core may be ‘standards in name, but the reality is that what’s tested is what’s taught. Federally funded Common Core tests drive classroom practice.

Jindal called on local districts to experiment with teacher evaluations. Finally, the 2016 hopeful wants a repeal of teacher certification mandates, a “systematic review” of public teacher preparation programs, and an end to all lifetime job guarantees.

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“For most of us, the idea that we could never be fired regardless of whether we did our jobs well, or even did our jobs at all would strike us as absurd.”

Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida received 16 percent, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky received 13 percent, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin received 12 percent, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey received 10 percent. No other potential candidate received double digits.